Posted on 08/06/2010 11:24:55 AM PDT by Sprite518
The servicemen say that the strict rules put them in greater danger, even as they aim to avoid civilian casualties.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Yup. This is why I don’t advise joining the military right now.
Even the Generals are pussyfooting around.
“Under General McChrystal, NATO forces were prohibited from calling in air strikes or artillery fire on village compounds where the enemy might have been mixed in with civilians. Going several steps better, General Petraeus has reportedly expanded the ban on air strikes and artillery fire to all types of buildings, tree-lined areas and hillsides where it is difficult to distinguish who is on the ground.”
Writes Petraeus: “Every Afghan civilian death diminishes our cause.”
In other words let them shoot at you and do not dare to fire back. What a jack a$$! I'm sorry but this guy has me fired up. I guess our guys are just cannon fodder?
If this is the way it's going to be, then I will highly discourage anyone thinking of joining the service. Yeah change we can believe in!
I think that is a smart move unless you have a death wish.
And they wonder why we have had the highest amount of deaths in a single month. I’m sorry but this general has blood on his hands. What a jerk!
I think that is a smart move unless you have a death wish.
And they wonder why we have had the highest amount of deaths in a single month. I’m sorry but this general has blood on his hands. What a jerk!
Unfortunately, I have to agree. Are there lots of people out there who think many of these Generals are nothing but a bunch of yes men?
What? Troops are still dying on the ground in Afghanistan? Wow, wonder why the SRM isn’t reporting on that anymore. /BEYOND MAD
Petraeus won the iraq war in a similar manner.
The new trend seems to be that the Generals are mostly interested in keeping their jobs, so they adhere to the whims of the politicians.
As we have seen, that is no way to win a war.
We apparently have lost the war fighting lessons from WWII where you destroyed everything in front of you. The current tactics did not work in Nam and won’t work here.
What does that even mean??
Did the millions of German civilian dead “diminish our cause?”
Did the millions upon million of civilian dean in Japan “diminish our cause?”
Sorry, 100% WRONG.
"It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions." - Thucydides
I think we should bring our boys home and hire the Israeli army to take care it.
many of these Generals are nothing but a bunch of yes men?
Many of these Generals didn’t get to be generals unless they kissed the politicians a$$. The surge was nothing more than just putting more grunts on the ground in Iraq, but the media called it brilliant, and people ate it like cake and ice crean.
WTF.
Is this Time creating disinformation, or the usual LameStream Media failure to understand the real world?
Or is Petraeus really doing as this rag suggests?
Agree 100% Like the quote too.
I wish it was B.S. It’s the truth! Even a broken clock, such as time, is right twice a day.
No he did not. Yes there were rules of engagement, but not this strict. Sorry we are going to lose there, and the blood with be in the hands of these gutless political Generals. Sorry but I don’t like seeing our troops being used as pawns by gutless people.
Lets hope he has a few tricks up his sleeve to win this one. If he does—he’s got my vote if he runs for President. Palin/Petraeus—has a nice ring to it.
Before, unless you were taking fire from a compound or any structure, now matter how dilapidated, you couldn't degrade it even if the enemy had clearly retreated inside. Before, the enemy could hide in any walls-only, unoccupied, falling down structure. If they didn't fire, they were off limits to arty or air.
Now, if the enemy goes into any structure without a roof or any structure with a roof and only 3 walls we can degrade it whether we are fired on from that location or not.
This is a huge improvement and we no longer have to use ground assault on dilapidated structures.
We're not fighting WWII. This is an entirely different situation.
The current tactics did not work in Nam and won’t work here.
We didn't use these tactics in Vietnam. We killed two million Vietnamese and still lost. The Russians did something similar to that in Afghanistan and lost.
Maybe the top generals learned something from Vietnam and know more about counterinsurgency warfare than anyone on this thread.
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